button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 97:-
Fell, is the mountain on which ghosts appeared in myriads, at intervals during ten years of the last century,- presenting precisely the same appearances to twenty-six chosen witnesses, and to all the inhabitants of all the cottages within view of the mountain; and for a space of two hours and a-half at one time - the spectral show being then closed by darkness. The mountain is full of precipices which defy all marching of bodies of men; and the north and west sides present a sheer perpendicular of 900 feet. On Midsummer eve 1735, a farm-servant of Mr. Lancaster's, half-a-mile from the mountain, saw the eastern side of the summit covered with troops, which pursued their onward march for an hour. They came, in distinct bodies, from an eminence in the north end, and disappeared in a niche in the summit. When the poor fellow told this tale, he was insulted on all hands; as original observers usually are when they see anything wonderful. Two years after, also on a Midsummer eve, Mr. Lancaster saw some men there, apparently following their horses, as if they had returned from hunting. He thought nothing of this; but he happened to look up again ten minutes after, and saw the figures now mounted, and followed by an interminable array of troops, five abreast, marching from the eminence and over the cleft, as before. All the family saw this, and the manoeuvres of the force, as each company was kept in order by a mounted officer who galloped this way and that. As the shades of twilight came on, the discipline appeared to relax, and the troops intermingled, and rode at unequal paces, till all was lost in darkness. Now, of course, all the
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